It would seem that the Biblical concepts of patience, or endurance, and longsuffering are concerned with resisting provocation. Patience relates to not being provoked to despair at the circumstances of a situation.
Whereas, longsuffering is more concerned with not being provoked to anger towards a person or God.
Anger is more personal in its application because it is more personal. I believe the reason why people are angry towards God and other people is because they have a will; we become angry towards other people because we believe they have the power to make decisions that will make life better for ourselves and other people.
Despair, on the other hand, is directed towards a situation; the emphasis here is on circumstances rather than human will, and therefore, the situation cannot be changed solely by influencing a person’s will.
The notion that love enables a person to resist provocation is further supported by 1 Corinthians 13:5.
All the aspects of the love of God as listed in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 are all about resisting provocation. On that note, we could also say that 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is concerned with maintaining peace: peace with ourselves, God and other people.
Notice how 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says nothing about deliverance or victory; Paul’s description of love says little about directly influencing other people through power and authority.
Love has much more to do with accepting ourselves, God and other people – just as they are at the moment. Yet love, as described in these verses, is absolutely vital to the believer who wants to see God move in his life.
It is little wonder that Jesus Himself said that we must first seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. I used to just assume that this meant that I had to make efforts to live right, so that God would abide in me – this is not necessarily the case.
Romans 14:17 tells us what the kingdom of God is. Therefore, we are to seek to know that God loves us just as we are. Knowing this should set us free to be able to accept ourselves, just as we are - and our life circumstances, just as they are. This is what brings us peace as we no longer strive and struggle in our own effort to change things. It is this assurance of righteousness - right-standing with God - which sets us free from a guilty conscience.
We become provoked when we see other Christians around us, making great efforts to serve God. This provocation can cause us to believe that we are not doing enough for God and so forth. The great news is this: God accepts us just the way we are right now. We do not have to work in order to get God to love us and accept us more.
The question that arises here is whether we in turn need to do something in order to accept our life circumstances, and other people, just as they are; or can we assume that once we accept ourselves as we are – we then find the grace we need in order to accept others, as they are? In other words: does faith for righteousness naturally attract patience and longsuffering? There are arguments for and against this amongst believers.
We read in 1 Corinthians 13:8 that love never fails. Love never fails because faith works by love and love always sees the victory.
Perhaps love does not see the victory straight-away, but rest assured, love sees the victory because love is the nature of God. The victory in this case might not be quite what we were expecting. I would say that the greatest victory we have in Christ is that we know we are accepted by Him and that we are saved. Next, is the assurance of peace and joy in this life – something that people are seeking after all the time – but never finding. After that, I would say there is great victory in the assurance that God protects us and that He meets our needs.
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